The Miami Marlins (35-36) close out a road trip Sunday afternoon at PNC Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates (36-35) in a game that is, on paper, the best pitching matchup of the day anywhere in baseball: Max Meyer (6-0, 2.85 ERA) against Paul Skenes (6-5, 2.84 ERA). First pitch is 12:15 PM ET. The game is on Peacock, which means it is exclusive to the streaming service — not on either team’s regional network, not on MLB.TV. If you want to watch it, you watch it on Peacock.
The Marlins arrive having won nine of their last ten — a stretch that included sweeps of the Nationals in Washington and the Diamondbacks at home, plus an 8-3 win over the Pirates on Friday. The six-game winning streak ended Saturday in deflating fashion: with the score tied 2-2 in the eighth, reliever Anthony Bender struck out the first two batters, then gave up singles to Tyler Callihan and Jake Mangum, walked Jared Triolo to load the bases, and hit Spencer Horwitz with a 97 mph sinker on the first pitch after a mound visit to force in the go-ahead run. Pittsburgh won 3-2. It was the kind of loss that stings — two outs, nobody on, and a hit batter ends it — but it does not undo what the Miami offense has been doing. The bats that scored 23 runs against Arizona and put up eight on Friday have been, in the words of nobody official but everybody watching, a hit machine. That is the team Skenes has to navigate Sunday.
The Matchup: Meyer vs. Skenes
Max Meyer has done one thing in 2026: win. He is 6-0 in 14 starts with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP, and 86 strikeouts in 79 innings. He has not been charged with a loss all season. He beat the Nationals on June 3 (7 IP, 1 ER) and gave the Marlins a chance again on June 9 against Arizona. The former No. 3 overall pick out of the University of Minnesota — Tommy John survivor, slider artist — is in the middle of the best stretch of his career, and on a Marlins team with little national attention, his 6-0 record is one of the quietest very-good stories in the National League.
Miami Marlins pitcher Max Meyer (23) in action during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Paul Skenes is the opposite kind of story: a pitcher everyone is watching, having a great season, who cannot buy a win. Skenes is 6-5 with a 2.84 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP, and he has not won a game since May 12, when he allowed two hits over eight innings against the Rockies. In the month since, he has pitched well enough to win most nights — including a June 9 start against the Dodgers in which he allowed two runs in six innings, only for the Pittsburgh bullpen to surrender 10 runs in the seventh. The wins have simply not come. Skenes has faced the Marlins twice in his career and owns a 2.38 ERA against them with 16 strikeouts in 11â…“ innings. Miami’s Xavier Edwards (2-for-5 with a walk) and Otto Lopez (2-for-4) have had some success against him; Kyle Stowers has struck out in three of four at-bats.
United States pitcher Paul Skenes signs autographs after the team defeated the Dominican Republic at a World Baseball Classic semifinal game, Sunday, March 15, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Skenes walks almost nobody — a 5% walk rate that ranks in the 95th percentile in baseball. If the Marlins are going to score on him, they will have to earn it with hits, not free passes. Good thing they have been collecting hits like a machine.
There is a World Baseball Classic footnote to this matchup, too. Skenes pitched for Team USA at the 2026 WBC in March, including the semifinal win over the Dominican Republic at loanDepot park — the Marlins’ own ballpark. He was one of the faces of the American staff in a tournament that ran through Miami. The Marlins lineup he faces Sunday is full of players who were on the other side of that tournament: Otto Lopez with Canada, Jakob Marsee with Italy, Javier Sanoja a hero for Venezuela. The WBC threads run through almost every game if you look for them.
The Marlins’ Shiny New Catcher
Joe Mack, the 23-year-old catcher and former first-round pick, has taken over a larger share of the catching duties and brought a defensive dimension the Marlins have not had behind the plate in a while. Mack can throw. Runners who get comfortable taking second base against Miami will want to check the scouting report first. On a day when Skenes is on the mound and runs will be at a premium, a catcher who can control the running game and steal a strike or two is worth more than his batting line suggests.
Miami Marlins catcher Joe Mack throws a ball during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
International Players In This Game
World Baseball Network tracks the international footprint of every roster. The Marlins’ international core — Otto Lopez (Panama, Team Canada at the 2026 WBC), Liam Hicks (Canada), Heriberto Hernández (Dominican Republic), Javier Sanoja (Venezuela), Jakob Marsee (American-born, Team Italy at the 2026 WBC), and the rest — has been covered all season in these pages. The Pirates bring their own international group to PNC Park on Sunday.
Oneil Cruz (Dominican Republic), the 27-year-old center fielder and one of the most physically gifted players in baseball, is on the injured list with two non-displaced fractures in his left hand and will not play in this series. His absence is a real subtraction from the Pittsburgh lineup.
Marcell Ozuna (Dominican Republic), the 35-year-old designated hitter and former Marlin, anchors the middle of the Pittsburgh order. Ozuna came up with the then-Florida Marlins, made his MLB debut in Miami in 2013, and is now a veteran run-producer in his 14th big-league season. There is a small homecoming flavor every time he faces his original organization.
Endy Rodríguez (Dominican Republic) shares the catching duties. Esmerlyn Valdez (Dominican Republic), 22, is a recent call-up outfielder. The Pittsburgh bullpen is heavily international: Gregory Soto (Dominican Republic), Dennis Santana (Dominican Republic), and Yohan Ramírez (Dominican Republic) are all key arms, and José Urquidy (Mexico), the veteran right-hander who came over from Houston, is on the staff.
The most interesting name for an international-baseball publication might be Brandan Bidois, a 25-year-old right-handed reliever from New Zealand by way of Australia in his first major-league season. Bidois represents one of the rare paths to the major leagues from the Southern Hemisphere, and his presence on the Pittsburgh staff continues a quiet theme of this Marlins road stretch — first Curtis Mead and the Australian pipeline in Washington, now another arm from that corner of the world in Pittsburgh.
How To Watch
- Sunday June 14 · 12:15 PM ET · Meyer vs. Skenes · Peacock (exclusive)
- Venue: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Radio: WINZ 940 AM (Miami) · WAQI 710 AM (Spanish) · 93.7 The Fan (Pittsburgh)
- Note: This is a Peacock exclusive. It is not available on MLB.TV or the regional sports networks. A Peacock subscription is required.
The Stakes
The Marlins are 35-36, back to within a game of .500 after sitting eight games under at the end of May. A win Sunday makes it ten wins in their last eleven and gets Miami to .500 for the first time since April. The Pirates are 36-35, a game over .500 themselves, having steadied after a rough first week of June. Two teams flirting with the break-even mark, two teams whose seasons could tip either direction in the next month, meeting on a Sunday afternoon with their two best young arms on the mound.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes warms up with a football before a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Miami Marlins pitcher Max Meyer (23) in action during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
But the real reason to watch is the matchup. Two of the best young right-handers in the National League, one of them undefeated and ignored, the other dominant and winless, on a Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Meyer has spent the season quietly proving he belongs in the conversation. Skenes has spent the last month proving that pitching well and winning are two different things. Something has to give.
First pitch is 12:15 PM ET. It is on Peacock.
— MT
